Thread: Old Saw - what's up with these split sawnuts?

Are they brass or steel? What does the other side look like?

Originally Posted by burraboy

Are they brass or steel? What does the other side look like?

A magnet sticks to them, so steel. Here are some better pics.
Thanks.
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They look like rivets peened over washers to me. The top one looks like a repair using an old brass saw split nut as the washer.

Originally Posted by homesy135

They look like rivets peened over washers to me. The top one looks like a repair using an old brass saw split nut as the washer.

Is there any way to salvage that brass splitnut? I'm hoping to re-use it on a better saw.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by homesy135

They look like rivets peened over washers to me. The top one looks like a repair using an old brass saw split nut as the washer.

What he said. Those brass split nuts aren't too bad to make up and pretty easy to damage in taking off, so good luck with it!

I dont think that nut is worth the effort. Not too hard to make your own. I used this method by Norse Woodsmith.
Poor Boy Split Nuts | Norse Woodsmith

Other option is find some from another old saw.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by schuld66

Is there any way to salvage that brass splitnut? I'm hoping to re-use it on a better saw.
Thanks.

I wouldn't think so. Half the split nuts stripped by simply unscrewing them from the bolt in the few old saws I've taken apart and I was using split nut driver. You'd have to drill out the centre of the rivet to remove the peened metal and I'd guess the thread is already destroyed.

A better idea, if like me you lack the skills and machinery to make split nuts, is to buy modern replacements. I buy mine from Blackburn Tools:

Blackburn Tools - Split nut saw bolts


Paul

The handle on that saw looks far too modern to have split nuts, and as the others have said, they are most likely rivets. Rivets are very common on many saws made in the latter 1/2 of the 20th C., and they are always steel, in my experience, whereas the old split nuts & bolts are always brass. I agree that it's unlikely the nut used as a washer will still have useable thread in it, but I suppose it's possible.

I'll give a dissenting opinion & say that it's actually not all that difficult to make split nuts. If you have a woddlathe and a suitable chuck for your headstock, you can do a pretty good job, but it is fiddly! Even if you have a metal lathe, it's a tedious job, but a lot easier to make them accurately. You can also make the bolts from a bit of suitable threaded brass rod (3/16 Whitworth thread is easy to come by), and some 1/2" brass rod.

Just depends on how much you like to fiddle around....

Cheers,

Just for the heck of it, I tried to plow through the rust to find an etch. I got a partial and I'm wondering if anyone may have seen this before. I couldn't get much, but I'll send a couple of pictures. I'm pretty sure the arched word at the top begins with "FAR" and I think the word below and to the left is "WARRANTED", and I think the word to the right is "STEEL".
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Hmm, the plot thickens. Can't think of a name that begins "FAR..", but one of the saw gurus will no doubt come up with a suggestion, shortly. In any case, that's not an etch, Schuld66, that's a stamp. Now stamps disappeared long before that style of handle was made. It's starting to look like you've got an old blade married to a much more recent handle. If you take the handle off, & there are some non-matching extra holes in the saw, that would settle it...

Cheers,

It has a nib. Based upon my very limited experience with hand saws, the ones with nibs tended to be older. Is this the case?

Originally Posted by IanW

Hmm, the plot thickens. Can't think of a name that begins "FAR..", but one of the saw gurus will no doubt come up with a suggestion, shortly. In any case, that's not an etch, Schuld66, that's a stamp. Now stamps disappeared long before that style of handle was made. It's starting to look like you've got an old blade married to a much more recent handle. If you take the handle off, & there are some non-matching extra holes in the saw, that would settle it...

Cheers,

I took the handle off, but there were no extra holes (see the first pic below). Also, the middle sawnut/washer seems to made of copper. My drill slipped and shaved off some of the washer and it appears to be copper -- it's hard to make out the color in the picture, but it's definitely the color of copper when seen in person. The top replacement was brass, and the bottom nut was steel.

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Originally Posted by schuld66

It has a nib. Based upon my very limited experience with hand saws, the ones with nibs tended to be older. Is this the case?

Yep, nibs haven't been regular features for a hundred years or thereabouts. That, plus the stamp makes it far older than I thought at first glance. I still don't get the handle - it just isn't right for any pre-WW2 saw I've seen, but I could easily be way out, I'm not a saw historian. Rivets are a late development in saw manufacturing, so they don't jibe with an ancient pedigree. The matching holes in handle & plate indicate it's not a bodgy replacement, but it could still be a user-made job to replace an original that was damaged beyond use.

We have some very keen saw buffs who have some knowledge of saws & their histories, but they haven't chipped in yet; must be busy elsewhere - p'raps they are combing through their texts, trying to match your saw!?

Cheers,

Backsaw.net lists a William Charles Farrer as a saw maker:
Checklist of British Saw Makers